Associate RGDs receive grants to attend DesignThinkers 2026 in Vancouver

Hannah Lord Associate RGD

Project: Torn

Sponsored by PS&Co

Torn is a three-part editorial series using discursive design to explore Maasai culture, history and the social challenges affecting women and girls. The series grew from a six-week design internship in Kenya, where Hannah worked with non-profit organizations and visited Maasai women’s villages, later developing the project through interviews, independent research and community participation. Each book takes a distinct visual approach, with the binding becoming progressively looser to mirror a child’s progression through harmful practices—and the second volume incorporates community-contributed drawings printed on vellum to create a translucent, haunting effect. Hand-drawn typography paired with infographics adds a sense of humanity to difficult data while supporting awareness, education and community-led change.

Jordan Richert Associate RGD

Project: Unity Brewing: Sustainable Non-Alcoholic Beer

Sponsored by Pendo

Unity Brewing is a conceptual brand identity and packaging system that repositions non-alcoholic beer as expressive, intentional and rooted in community. Research revealed that the majority of widely available non-alcoholic options in Canada are owned by the same multinational conglomerate, with packaging that largely mirrors alcoholic counterparts and offers little cultural differentiation—leaving a significant gap for a brand built on environmental responsibility and regional specificity. Illustration was chosen as the central medium to communicate warmth and social connectivity, with botanicals native to BC woven into scenes of everyday human connection. The final system spans four illustrated can designs, mixer packaging, merchandise and a beer festival truck, demonstrating how the identity scales across multiple touchpoints.

Jumanah Abualkhair Associate RGD

Project: Party in the Lanes Festival

Sponsored by Will

Party in the Lanes is a festival brand identity for the Downtown Brampton Business Improvement Area’s signature summer event, which features North America’s first inflatable flower art installation alongside live music, street performances and community activations. Centred on Brampton’s identity as Flower City, the identity uses hand-drawn linework and loosely sketched flower illustrations to capture a sense of vibrant, community-driven liveliness. A warm palette of yellows, reds and softer tones balances energy with approachability, while bold, playful typography reinforces the festival’s casual yet distinctive character. The campaign helped generate over 500,000 social media impressions and an estimated attendance of over 10,000 people across the three-day event.

Julia Do Alamo Associate RGD

Project: Revolution 12

Sponsored by Rethink

Revolution 12 is a thesis project from George Brown College proposing a subscription service that delivers one record, one book and one film each month, limited by design to encourage slower, more intentional engagement with physical media. The subscription box is structured to pace discovery, with each item concealed in its own sleeve to deepen the connection with each piece. A newspaper-style secondary deliverable, The Monthly Rev-iew, extends the experience with cultural commentary, reflection prompts and interactive elements that link all three items to a monthly theme. A 121-page process book documents the full project from research and strategy through to prototyping and branding.

Michelle Tieu Associate RGD

Project: The Lot Brand Identity

Sponsored by OK DAVE

The Lot is a conceptual brand identity for a community-centred organization with a mission to transform underused urban parking lots into vibrant, inclusive gathering spaces. The visual system includes a primary brand identity alongside three sub-identities for music, marketplace and creative events, each maintaining cohesion while allowing for distinct expression across different programming. Deliverables include posters, transit advertising, wayfinding, merchandise and social media assets, demonstrating how the brand extends across physical and digital applications. The tagline “the new public square” positions the brand as a champion for reclaiming overlooked urban spaces for community connection.

Sara Lee Associate RGD

Project: Bossa Jazz Fest

Sponsored by 123w

Bossa Jazz Fest is a brand identity for an annual music festival in Finland celebrating the intersection of bossa nova and jazz. The identity is built on a modular typographic system that translates three musical ideas—looped motif, syncopation and improvisation—into flexible visual structures. The festival name is broken into rectangular typographic blocks set on a strict grid, with repetition, off-beat shifts and subtle variation acting as visual analogues for musical ideas. The system adapts across tickets, social posts and merchandise at varying levels of abstraction, from clear informational applications to more expressive, pattern-driven compositions.

Solwhi Park Associate RGD

Project: VORA

Sponsored by Becoming Design Office

VORA is a personal portfolio project exploring the intersection of product design, branding and 3D visualization for a fictional performance footwear brand. The workflow combined Blender with graphic design software to develop a minimal, futuristic brand world, testing its visual language across a diverse range of outputs. Final deliverables include high-fidelity 3D product renders and shoe-box packaging, out-of-home advertising mockups and typographically driven web and mobile UI layouts, demonstrating how a cohesive brand identity scales across physical and digital touchpoints.

The applications for Development Grants for DesignThinkers 2026 in Toronto (Oct. 26–27) will open in July.